Hi guys, i found a wicked bargin on a LGA 1156 mobo, P7H57D-V EVO for about $60. It looks like it's cross-fire capable, has raid and also usb 3.0, i was thinking of going for it but i'd need a new cpu (and ram) my budget wouldn't be that great for a cpu so i was thinking an i3/i5 and overclock the hell out of it.

How would a Intel Core i5 650 compare to my current CPU or even an i3 - 540, i don;t have the money to spend mega bucks on a sandy bridge, but if i can get much better performance than my current system for about $200 i'm all for it.

as for a performance comparison the i5 should be faster but i'm not sure by how much considering your 4.4ghz OC. the quad i-5s should be faster in multi-threaded apps since they have 4 cores instead of 2. the cheapest Lynfeild i5 i could find new is $210usd

If you can fit the i5 into the budget along with 4GB DDR3 kit then go for it with that mobo,your still stuck with single config GPU so i wouldn't worry about crossfire at this stage.
But if you can't fit a DDR3 4gb kit into the budget then i would say get the i3,the old i3 are a monster when it comes to overclocking when you stick a good cooler on it,their much better than sandy bridge i3 as i was told you can't overclock on them if i am correct,if not then i stand wrong.

IMO get the i5-655K because it's unlocked multiplier allows easier overclocks than the i5-650.

Click to expand...

Yea, they use millions here, 2million ~ $100 usd. So the letters after the model number indicate that it has an unlocked multiplier.
On the downside, i just found out it was a different motherboard he had for sale for $60... the review he linked was to something else, but the advice here is still useful as i am keeping my eye out for bargains and will definitively be upgrading in the future.